Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for making ice for a refrigerator.
Description of the Related Art
A refrigerator is an appliance that serves to store food at low temperatures; it may be configured to store food at temperatures below freezing or at low but above freezing temperatures.
The temperature inside the refrigerator is maintained at the desired level by cool air that is continuously supplied to the refrigerator. The cool air is continuously produced by a heat exchange operation between air and a refrigerant performed in a refrigeration cycle comprising four sequential phases: compression, condensation, expansion, and evaporation. Cool air is channeled to the inside of the refrigerator and is evenly distributed inside the refrigerator by convection.
The body of a refrigerator typically has a rectangular hexahedral shape that opens frontward, with a refrigerator compartment and a freezer compartment defined and isolated from one another within the refrigerator body. The open front of the refrigerator body may comprise both a refrigerator compartment door and a freezer compartment door that can open or close the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment, respectively. The storage space defined inside the refrigerator may comprise a plurality of drawers, shelves, and boxes designed to store various kinds of food in various optimal states.
In the related art, a top mount type refrigerator in which the freezer compartment is provided in the upper part of the refrigerator body and the refrigerator compartment is provided in the lower part of the refrigerator body is well known. However, in recent years, for greater convenience to users, a bottom freezer type refrigerator in which the freezer compartment is provided in the lower part of the refrigerator body has been proposed and used. Here, the bottom freezer type refrigerator may be preferable since the more frequently used refrigerator compartment is located in the upper part of the refrigerator body and the less frequently used freezer compartment is located in the lower part of the refrigerator body. However, the bottom freezer type refrigerator is problematic in that to take ice cubes from the freezer compartment, a user must open the freezer compartment door and collect ice cubes while bending.
In an effort to solve the problem, in recent years, a refrigerator in which an ice dispenser for dispensing ice cubes is provided in a refrigerator compartment door placed in the upper part of a bottom freezer type refrigerator has been proposed and used. In such a refrigerator, an ice making device for making ice cubes may be provided in the refrigerator compartment door or inside the refrigerator compartment.
For example, in a bottom freezer type refrigerator having an ice making device in the refrigerator compartment door, cool air that has been produced by an evaporator is divided and discharged both into the freezer compartment and into the refrigerator compartment. Here, cool air that was discharged into the freezer compartment flows to the ice making device via a cool air supply duct arranged in a sidewall of the refrigerator body, and then freezes water while circulating inside the ice making device. Thereafter, the cool air is discharged from the ice making device into the refrigerator compartment via a cool air restoration duct arranged in the sidewall of the refrigerator body, so that the cool air can reduce the temperature inside the refrigerator compartment.
Here, to make ice cubes using the ice making device in the above-mentioned refrigerator, cool air should flow to the ice making device via the cool air supply duct and should flow from the ice making device via the cool air restoration duct; this way, the refrigerator is more efficient because cool air flows to the refrigerator compartment via both the cool air supply duct and the cool air restoration duct.
Further, in the refrigerator, the ice making device is located on the refrigerator compartment door, while the cool air supply and cool air restoration ducts are provided in the refrigerator body, so the refrigerator is problematic in that when the cool air flows from the cool air supply duct to the ice making device or flows from the ice making device to the cool air restoration duct, the cool air may leak from the junction between the refrigerator compartment door and the refrigerator body.